Tata Group’s ecom arm, Tata Cliq is looking to be India’s biggest retailer
in the online space. The etailer is rolling out major discounting
initiatives and hoping to give tough competition to larger e-commerce
players viz, Amazon and Flipkart. If Amazon gave the world e-commerce,
Flipkart made it mainstream in India.

Tata Cliq is enhancing its online presence with spending on digital
marketing and heavily discounting products. As Amazon and Flipkart continue
to grow, and with Reliance Retail planning to enter the market later this
year, the pressure is on the medium to large sized e-commerce firms such as
Tata Cliq to stand out.

Tata Cliq sells a variety of product and brands and has a big emphasis on
fashion. However, it is the electronics, home appliances, and smartphone
sections that the business is most heavily discounting at present with
prices lower than rivals Amazon and Flipkart in many cases. However, some
worry discounting items too heavily in the hope of drawing customers could
cause an unsustainable price war, as has happened before.

The CEO of Tata UniStore, Ashutosh Pandey, had earlier said while there
will be discounts and it will not burn pockets. The brand will not be the
cheapest but the most authentic place to shop. This suggests heavy
discounting will not become the main strategy of the brand but more of a
short term one.

Tata Cliq started its operation in 2016 named by Tata UniStore and reported
sales of Rs 12 crore ($1.8 million) for the 2016-17 financial year, with a
loss of Rs 162 crore ($24.4 million).